I Hack PDF
English

Redact matching text

Find and permanently black out every matching text item.

Read the guide ↓

What this tool does

Find selectable text items containing a phrase and mask those items in a rebuilt PDF. Use it to locate repeated written identifiers, then visually verify that every intended occurrence has been removed.

What you can open
One PDF with selectable text and a phrase to match.
What you will download
An image-based PDF with matching text items masked.

How to use it

  1. Enter a distinctive phrase from the document.
  2. Run the text-matching redaction at a suitable resolution.
  3. Inspect all pages and check for variants or occurrences that were not matched.

Options explained

Text to remove
Enter the text to find. Check matches carefully because PDF words can be stored in separate text items.
Resolution, DPI
Set the rendering resolution. Higher values can improve visible detail but use more memory and create larger files.

Know the tradeoffs

  • Matching ignores case but phrases spanning separate text items may not match.
  • The entire matching text item is masked, and all output pages are image-based.

Questions about this tool

Will this recognize words inside a scan automatically?

No. It matches selectable text; scanned content needs a different preparation or manual rectangular masking.

Why can more text disappear than the exact phrase?

The whole matching PDF text item is masked, not individual characters within that item.